


If Impmon Said No To the Offer

by Knifey (VioletThePorama)



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Tamers
Genre: .net has more chapters, Canon-Typical Violence, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, I just want to edit some, Impmon-centric, Light Angst, Still updating it very very slowly, changing stuff around mid-season, made this a few years ago, reposted from fanfiction.net
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22027984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VioletThePorama/pseuds/Knifey
Summary: A focus on how the timeline could have changed had Impmon turned down Caturamon's offer of power.A much older work uploaded from Fanfiction.net
Comments: 13
Kudos: 19





	1. To Deal or Not To Deal

A small purple imp sat in the sewers, bruised and battered from his most recent defeat at the hands of Indramon. How he loathed that horse for proving him so weak.

A white light shone from the entrance of the sewers, and Impmon screwed up his face at the sudden assault to his senses.

“You crave power, don't you? I can make you stronger.” Said the voice.

The offer was tempting and vague. It left ideas to Impmon's mind. Ideas he had been pondering and angsting over for however long he had been sulking and hiding away. His body was stiff and his head pounded. He was ravenous, and as his eyes readjusted to the light, it seemed softer and more welcoming than ever.

But he didn't need that. He could do it himself. Even if he wasn't strong yet, he wasn't going to stoop to that level.

“No thanks. I've seen 'nough TV to know not to trust random voices.”

“So be it.” The voice sighed, as if disappointed.

“What's that supposed-” He began to snark before the light disappeared. Impmon attempted to stand and yell after it, before crumpling back to his knees.

____________________________________________________________________________

Renamon paused at a surge of energy nearby. She hoped that it was who the tamers had been searching for. It was best to know where all the digimon were when they were leaving so soon. Especially one who had been so injured and left without anybody to help.

“There.” Renamon called, and ducked into a tunnel, picking him up. His head lolled, and he seemed mostly unconscious.

The children turned and met the sight with horrified expressions. The few digimon with them looked disturbed. This wasn't the Impmon they were used to.

“Is he okay...?” Kenta asked, and Renamon focused her attention on the digimon in her arms.

“I believe so. He's hurt, but he can recover,” She answered.

“Yeah but where's he gonna stay?” Kazu asked, and Rika frowned, rubbing her chin.

“That's actually a good question for once. We're going to the Digital world, so we can't just keep him in our houses or anything...”

“He can stay at my house!” Jeri volunteered. “I know we have to go soon, but we can take another day or two to make sure he's fine?”

“Are you sure?” Takato frowned. The digimon was a lot of work.

“Of course. Leomon can help me. I can do this while you guys find the portal.”

“And then we can get Calumon back.” Takato grinned, determined to find it.

Renamon nodded slowly and carefully passed Impmon over to Jeri.

____________________________________________________________________________

She took him back to her house while the others searched. He stayed asleep for the good part of a day and a half, though Leomon assured her that this was normal.

Luckily, he woke up just after they had discovered their way to the Digital World.


	2. Girls and Bread

Impmon frowned at the girl in front of him as he sat up, dazed. The beginning of a headache buzzed at the back of his head, becoming more apparent as he tried to reason out where he was. The last thing Impmon remembered was being in a tunnel. 

For a moment, he was sure that he had to be dead after that  _ light _ , but he quickly dismissed that notion as he focused back on the girl.

“Are you okay?” She was asking, voice raising in pitch. “Leomon said you would be, but you looked really hurt! I took you back to my place”

“Yeah, sure I’m fine, toots,” Impmon relaxed a bit, placing the girl as one of the ones who had been playing around with the gogglehead and his bread-scarfing digi-slave. Then he processed her words and was on edge again. A Leomon, huh?

“Um,” She paused. “Toots? Oh, nevermind. Anyway, I’m very glad that you’re okay, we all thought you might have-”

“Get to the point,” He cut her off, and glanced around her room as he continued on. “Why aren’t you out with your gang turning more digimon into slaves? You already got a Leomon.”

The human sat on her knees, face falling into a frown. 

“We’re just trying to protect people. But… Calumon got captured by this really mean monkey deva. We were going to the digital world, but then we found you and… Well.”

“Creampuff got taken?” Impmon asked, and then cursed himself when he recognized how stunned he sounded. “Why’d you stop? I would’ve been fine.”

The girls frown morphed into a horrified look. “Why wouldn’t we stop for you?!? Takato told me about how you’ve played with Guilmon and Terriermon. You aren’t  _ bad _ , so we helped you.”

Impmon groaned at the memory, and went to stand- only to collapse back onto the bed with a pained grunt. 

“Oh!” The human scooted forward and shot a glance at her window. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Impmon snapped, assessing his injuries. “Just a bit dizzy.”

“O-okay... I should probably call the others and tell them that you’re awake.”

“Yeah, you do that toots,” Impmon said, leaping at the chance to get out of the house before she summoned the other digi-slaves. 

She stood. “I’ll tell Leomon. You can meet him while I call Takato.” 

He froze and laughed nervously. “You don’t have to do that.”

“It’s no trouble. I’ll be back in a minute,” She said, and opened her window. “Leomon?”

Impmon jumped in surprise when the lion digimon materialized at the window, and took a moment to get inside the room. “... He’s awake then.”

“Mhm! I’m going to tell the others. Will you please watch him? He still seemed pretty hurt…”

“Of course, Jeri,” Leomon said, and settled down to watch the imp as Jeri left. 

“And why would a warrior like you need a human?” Impmon accused, laying back and glaring at the ceiling, giving into his fate of being annoyed by children. 

For a moment, there was no answer. Impmon opened his mouth to repeat it, turning to frown in Leomon’s direction, before the warrior actually began speaking. “It’s not that I need her. It’s that I’m happy with her, and she’s happy with me.”

Impmon sputtered at the gushiness of the statement. “Ugh! I think I’ll just go.”

“Jeri was very worried about you,” Leomon said, shifting almost imperceptibly in front of the window. “I would stay for a while longer, if I were you. Besides, I doubt you could get very far with those injuries.”

Impmon glowered at the truth in the statement, before the door opened. Both digimon tensed, attention brought to the entrance. Leomon relaxed when Jeri walked in, but Impmon didn’t, too worked up with his current predicament. 

“I told them you were awake,” Jeri reported. “They want to know when you will be ready to travel so that we can meet up at Guilmon’s hideout.”

“The sooner I’m done with you losers the better,” Impmon declared, wincing at he sat up. “... Is that bread?”

She grinned and placed a loaf of it on the bed next to him, and handed another to Leomon. “I thought you two might be hungry. Do you think you would be healed enough to go by tomorrow?”

“Guess I’ll stick around ‘till then,” Impmon said, swiping and scarfing down the bread. 

Leomon nodded. “It’s settled, then.”

“Okay!” Jeri clasped her hands together and grinned at him. Impmon sighed in frustration before turning his attention back to the loaf of bread. 


	3. Running

It wasn’t long before morning came, and it was time for Impmon to once again face the human loving digimon and their partners. He complained and grumbled but didn’t put up too much of a fight. Any threats of taking off into the city were empty, as he was too tired and too tempted by the offer of bread to go anywhere else. 

Besides, those Deva’s needed to be taught a lesson after what they had pulled on him. Whether he liked it or not, the tamers were his best bet at that. 

So he travelled to Guilmon’s designated hiding place, stumbling along after Leomon as the Digimon followed Jeri and leapt from building to building. The virus had rested enough to at least keep up, though jumping the rooftops proved to be more of a challenge than usual, and certainly more than he had anticipated. A few times, Leomon stopped to look at something, or Jeri stopped to greet a human. Impmon knew they were slowing themselves down for him, and could barely contain an angry yell for them to stop pitying him, only refraining from it because that would make it worse. 

“We’re here,” Leomon rumbled. 

“Thanks fer statin’ the obvious,” Impmon grumbled, climbing down a building to switch to a low hanging tree limb. He focused on the group of kids. 

Jeri ran on ahead, yelling in greeting to her friends up ahead. The two Digimon followed behind her to where the rest of the Digimon were hidden from the public. Once in sight, Impmon plopped down on the current tree branch he was on and watched as Leomon stood behind his tamer and nodded to the group.

“Jeri! You make it,” Takato smiled, stepping over to greet her as he ran a hand nervously through his hair.

“You, you made it. But where’s Impmon?” Terriermon huffed, hooking an ear around his tamers shoulder. “I thought you said that jerk-face made it.”

The annoying flea-bag was met with his partner murmuring his name in irritation, and with Renamon silently pointing to the tree. Impmon hunkered down on the branch, but it did little to hide him from the party. 

“Oh, so he really did make it,” Terriermon said, blinking. Impmon couldn’t tell if he was happy or saddened by this face, so he decided to be offended regardless. 

“What’s it to you?” He asked, grumbling as the human children murmured to each other. 

“Well, we thought you’d died for one, and  _ two _ -” Terriermon was interrupted by Guilmon who gave him a goofy, but strangely knowing smile. 

“We were worried. We um- Takatomon said we need to go through there to get our friend.”

“Through your stupid play pen?” Impmon asked sarcastically, not quite grasping how that would help them get to Calumon like Jeri said they were trying to do. 

“Through a portal, more like.” Renamon’s tamer said, frowning at him. Impmon paused as he finally realized what Jeri had been going on about earlier. 

“Wait, wait, wait… You’re actually plannin’ on going through the Digital World? Are you  _ crazy _ ?”

“That’s what I said,” Terriermon huffed, and Impmon agreed with him for once. 

“It is where Calumon was taken,” Renamon murmured, her statement somehow audible through the morning air and arguing kids who looked at cards in the background. Impmon vaguely recognized them as some of the ones who had played with Guilmon before. 

“So do you have anything else to say on it?” Renamons tamer challenged, eyeing him. The imp had nothing to say. They already knew it was crazy, so he sat back on the tree branch and waited for them to discuss it. 

The children seemed to take his silence as the answer it was, and turned back to discussing their plans and filling Jeri in on what she had missed. The Digimon joined in with what they knew or could remember of their hateful world, and Impmon sighed almost inaudibly as he listened rather than left like he wanted to. 

Eventually, one of them came up with the question of what they would do with Impmon.

“He doesn’t have a tamer… He can’t digivolve, and-” One of them mumbled worriedly, and Impmon couldn’t find it in himself to match the voice to the face just yet, wallowing in self pity. 

Until he heard Renamon.

“He may actually have a partner,” The fox Digimon monotoned. There was a pause, and a few of them went on with the discussion, but a few of the kids and Digimon turned to him. 

He could feel the stares as he slowly opened his eyes and looked at Renamon. Impmon stood just as slowly, hot anger pulsing through his body. A coldness settled in the tips of his fingers as he contemplated sending a fireball to that foxes face. 

Then he recalled his tamers, his fighting twins. 

And he fled. 


	4. Worms And Hate

Impmon vaulted himself up onto a building and ran, stumbling and nearly losing his balance several times. He ignored the burning in his legs and the stiffness in his back. Blood rushed through his ears and his head pulsed and hurt, and he couldn’t focus on anything other than getting space between him and the fox who had mentioned his Tamers. 

Something in the back of his mind, he knew that he was being followed. The idiot kids were too stubborn to just let him leave, especially with how injured he had been. As the virus eventually slowed and processed that thought, he winced and panted, much more tired than usual. The running had only served to aggravate his still tender wounds, and all the earlier jumping had already tired him out. 

The Digimon managed to keep going for another moment before he collapsed against a door on the top of a roof. It was the middle of the day, so he wasn’t worried about any humans bothering him, aside from the brats he had left at the park. But… he hadn’t really gotten as far as he had anticipated. 

He tried not to think about that, focusing on whatever he could to keep his mind off of Tamers in general. After a few failed attempts, he covered his ears and murmured to himself. 

“Nobody likes me, everybody hates me-” His voice wavered as he heard the dull thumps of another individual roof-hopping. “I guess I’ll go eat worms,” Impmon murmured before shoving the song into the back of his mind, letting it linger with the memories of his humans. The horrible, disgusting things on Earth. 

“Impmon...” Renamon began, and Impmon startled. He was sure that he had another moment to sulk before she actually got there. 

“Whaddya want, toots? I can stay here. No need to drag  _ me _ off to the Digital World,” Impmon rambled, glaring at the other buildings rather than looking at her. 

“It was important that they knew,” Said the fox. He cursed her perceptiveness as a whole. 

“It wasn’ really,” He crossed his arms and turned away, trying not to wince. He really needed to start putting some thought into jumping around, and getting in fights, and doing things in general. 

Renamon was facing him, an expression edging on worry painted across her face, though her words contained none of the softness. “They would have stayed and delayed the rescue party. This is simply what lets us leave faster.”

“I don’t know  _ how _ this makes it faster. I’ve made it pretty clear I don’t want to go to the Digital World, so I’d still be here. And don’t even suggest them. I don’t want  _ nothing _ to do with them anymore,” Impmon reached to fiddle with his bandana, turning away from her again. 

“That’s a double negative,” Renamon said, and sat down on the roof. 

“I know that,” He refused to ask her what she was doing. 

So they stayed in silence for a few minutes. Impmon wanted to refrain from giving her the satisfaction of breaking under it, but in the quiet, his thoughts were overwhelming. 

“They’re still fighting,” Impmon said impulsively, not sure whether or not he had said it out loud until he turned back and finally faced her. 

“Who?” He figured she knew  _ who _ , but gave into her game anyway.

“The twins,” The purple devil told her, and she shifted, turning her gaze to the windows of the houses as she thought. Maybe she…  _ hadn’t _ known. 

“I see,” Renamon murmured. “They were your…”

“Both o’ them. Yeah.”

The conversation patterned off into silence again. When he wasn’t yelling at her, and when Renamon wasn’t trying to offer her advice to calm him down, she didn’t seem to have much to say. 

Or maybe she just didn’t have much to say to  _ him _ .

“Very well,” Renamon sighed, standing gracefully. “You don’t have to come.”

“Oh really?” The virus asked dryly, scanning the rooftops. She sighed. 

“Yes. I will do my best to explain the situation. We will leave for the Digital World tomorrow-”

“Are you going after the Deva’s?” He interjected suddenly. Renamon simply nodded, expressionless. Impmon hesitated for an instance, and shifted around to join her. “I’ll go.”

“We’ll still have to work out the problem about your… Tamers,” The fox warned. “Going or not, you’re still injured and at the rookie level, unable to Digivolve further.”

He tried not to bristle at her words. “My humans didn’t have a device.”

The fact gave him conflicting feelings. He wasn’t a total slave to the humans, but he didn't have  _ nearly _ the same bond that the rest of them seemed to have… Not that he cared. 

“Hm.”

“What does that- Hey!” He growled as she scooped him up and ran back in the direction of the park faster than he could object. After a moment, he accepted his fate. It was better than making the trip back himself, so he settled down and scowled. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Impmon sings that worm song in one of the episodes, while he's in the sewer area. In the English dub at least.


	5. Back To The Park

“He wishes to go with us,” Renamon said once they arrived back at the park. The kids looked up from their huddled little groups, and Impmon shoved away from the fox Digimon.

“You’re back!” One of the boys in the group exclaimed.

“Wish I wasn’,” Impmon scowled. He was ignored as Renamon’s tamer stepped closer and eyed him.

“Did you work out his whole… tamer thing?” Renamon’s tamer- Rika asked him.

“Not exactly,” Renamon sighed. She glanced at Impmon, who crossed his arms and glanced longingly at the tree branch he had been lounging on earlier. “Can I tell them what you told me?”

“Go ahead,” The devil sniffed haughtily. “Like I care.”

He watched the kids out of his peripherals. Jeri was giving him a worried look. The Leomon was watching him as well, much to Impmon’s dismay. A champions attention like that typically wasn’t a good thing to have, but with such a wimpy group like the one before him, it wasn’t  _ really _ a problem. 

Still…

“Impmon told me that he had tamers before, but that they didn’t have a Digivice,” Renamon told them. He heard a few mutters from the group, making out the word ‘ _ tamers _ ’ amongst their chatter. Renamon opened her mouth to talk again, but Impmon turned back to the group.

“I can take it from here, toots,” He snapped, going back on his assumption that he could handle her explaining it for him. 

“Are you sure?” Renamon asked, giving him a nearly imperceptible frown. He gave her what he hoped was a meaningful look in return. “... Alright, then.”

Impmon glanced over, and eventually focused on a tree a little past Guilmon, not really wanting to watch their reactions. “Ai and Mako. They’re four and I haven’ seen them in almost a year.”

“Who decided to let you hang out with four year olds?” Terriormon asked abruptly, but was hushed by his tamer. 

“They didn’t have one of your fancy devices, and even if they  _ did _ remember me, I left on bad terms. Besides, the Digiworld is no kind of place for  _ four _ year olds. So I’m goin’ without them,” He finished in a rush, trying not to feel so lightheaded and exposed. 

The kids considered him for a bit, some of them converging to talk. Impmon settled back on the ground and watched. After a bit, Guilmon walked over to him. 

“Hey Impmon,” The dinosaur greeted cheerfully. “I didn’t know you had tamers.”

“That was kinda the point of not telling anybody,” Impmon huffed. “Why does it matter to you, pineapple-head?”

Guilmon didn’t answer right away, looking back at the group of kids. “I think I would miss Takatomon if I didn’t see him everyday. I miss him when he goes to school sometimes…”

“Yeah, and?”

“Sorry if you get lonely,” Guilmon said, smiling at him. He sounded a bit more serious than usual. “I think I’d try to talk to Takato, even if he was mad at me.”

Impmon opened his mouth to rebuke that, before the dinosaur went on.

“I wonder if Calumon is lonely,” He sighed, turning back towards Takato. Impmon briefly considered the little white fuzzball that was always following him around. Once again, he was stopped from answering, but this time, it was by one of the kids calling the group to order. 

“We’re going into the Digital World tomorrow! Get supplies like we discussed, and meet at 8.00,” Terriermon’s tamer was saying. One of the kids without a Digimon spoke up.

“Is  _ he _ coming with us?”

“Impmon? Yeah.”

There were some general nods. Some more things were said, but Impmon tuned out the rest of it, watching them. The kids had no idea what they were up against. 

After a few moments, Jeri walked over to him and smiled. “Hey, do you want to come back to my house tonight?”

“I can take care of myself,” He spat, and then regretted the harshness upon spotting Leomon behind her. Jeri didn’t seem to take offense, though.

“That’s alright. I have some food if you want to drop by, though. I’ll see you tomorrow,” She smiled and then stood up, waving to one of the humans. “Bye Takato!”

The group dispersed, and Renamon stopped by Impmon’s side, facing the treeline as he took a step away from it.

“You’ll be here?” She asked quietly.

“Yeah, toots. I just have to do somethin’ first.”

“... Good luck,” Renamon murmured, staring after her tamer.

“Yeah.”


	6. The Twins

Impmon found himself on the familiar path to the twins house. Even if he hadn’t spoken to them in almost a year, he couldn’t keep himself from checking in on them, whenever the tingling in his arms and shoulders left him empty rather than mad.  _ They were just kids _ he rationalized, and went back filled with hope again and again, only to find them fighting. 

As he grew closer, he remembered Jeri’s offer of food. The imp could always abort and reroute there instead-

But he might not ever see the twins again. As much as he loathed to admit it, a rookie like himself might not make it out of the Digital World. 

Impmon continued on, pausing at the building across from their window. Just… a jump away.

The lights were off, but it was understandable given how late it was. He crept closer, unable to make anything out from where he was, and tossed a rock at the window. It bounced off of the glass, and he watched, hoping that was enough to rouse whoever was there. 

Nothing happened. 

After what felt like an eternity, he turned away from the window. Maybe he would get more rocks, or maybe find some humans to torment. Or he could go hang out with some of the digi-slaves. The imp took a step back, and promptly froze at the sound of a window opening. When the Digimon turned, he was met with the sight of Ai trying to keep it lifted above her head. 

“Impmon?” The girl called hopefully, looking around at the rooftops. He took a breath and stepped into her line of vision.

“Hey,” Impmon greeted, on the edge of the next building. She stared at him for a long while, and it wasn’t until her face split into a painful looking grin that he realized that he had stopped breathing. 

Ai raced further into the room, probably to grab Mako, and the window slid a bit. Impmon quickly maneuvered himself inside, only to be tackled by two children, smaller than the ones with Digimon, but worlds taller than they had been a year ago. 

The next several minutes consisted of them hugging him and sobbing incomprehensible words as Impmon tried to keep them quiet so that their mom wouldn’t try to investigate. 

It was Ai who said it first, tilting her head back and blubbering. “I’m sorry!”

“Hey,” Impmon tried placatingly. “It’s-”

“I’m sorry too,” Mako sniffed. “We shouldn’t have fought over you. We-”

“You shouldn’ have fought at all,” Impmon couldn’t help but interject, though he regretted it when the harsh words were met with more sobbing. “... Don’t worry about it,” he eventually told the two clinging beasts.

“We aren’t gonna fight anymore,” Mako murmured against his shoulder. 

“We’ll try,” Ai promised, right after her brother. 

Impmon stood there for a moment, stunned. Then he nodded slightly, tearing up. “Yeah?”

The kids nodded. They were really going to stop fighting, just because he had run away? It was within his right to leave, and not all of it had been fun, but-

They were-?

_ Humans _ had decided to change? For  **him** ? It had obviously been something the two had discussed, based on the fact that they were both going along with it, but just recently, he had seen them fighting over a teddy bear. They couldn’t really have changed that quickly. 

Could they?

Doubts crept into his mind, puncturing the image against humans that he had painted for himself. It tore through the lies he’d been spewing, and while he knew they were children, and they would still fight sometimes, the fact that they would even try at all…

Impmon was shaken out of his thoughts by the twins sudden stillness. He looked up, and froze along with them at the sight of a Digivice floating overhead, bathing the lot of them in a soft, purple glow as it slowly descended into Ai’s outstretched hand. 

Well then. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry short one


End file.
